The former Louboutin employee who stole samples to sell them on Facebook

A former employee of Christian Louboutin Boutique France and the Madison Avenue store in New York, Mehdi Mohamed Nasrallah, allegedly obtained brand samples worth thousands of dollars from France with the intention of reselling them in the United States. According to the accusation filed by Louboutin this week, Nasrallah allegedly opened a Facebook page, Christian Louboutin VIP Buy/Sell, with the assistance of an accomplice to advertise the stolen products online. Nasrallah's "project" reportedly began during his years in the French boutiques of the maison and concluded in New York in 2022 with the discovery of the theft and subsequent dismissal. According to the maison's legal team, Nasrallah's plan constitutes trademark infringement, unfair competition, and a breach of employment contract. The shoes and leather accessories offered for sale were not only stolen without authorization but are also samples, items not intended for sale as they have not undergone mandatory insurance and quality control procedures.

Louboutin filed a complaint against Nasrallah seeking damages and a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent the defendant from continuing to profit from stolen goods. This is not the first case where the maison has had to deal with a seller of counterfeit products; in past years, the brand initiated numerous legal battles against alleged imitators attempting to compete with the brand using the iconic red sole. While some of these legal battles were lost, as in the case of 2022 against a Japanese brand, others were victorious, such as the 2019 case against Amazon and the Chinese company Wanlima. Among Louboutin's most significant collaborations is also an unexpected partnership with Meta. In 2023, the two companies collaborated on a case against Cesar Octavio Guerrero Alejo, accused of running a counterfeiting operation from Mexico from 2020 to 2023. Alejo allegedly used 44 Facebook accounts and 32 Instagram accounts to sell counterfeit items, violating Louboutin's intellectual property rights and Meta's terms of service, bypassing the measures implemented by social media to stop illicit activities. Another similar collaboration between Meta and a luxury brand occurred in 2021, with Gucci in an intellectual property violation case, while this fall, Amazon and Prada Group joined forces to combat sellers of fakes exploiting the digital marketplace to introduce counterfeit goods to the market.